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A few really wonderful things happened this week. Let’s see, in order of importance, hubby had a birthday, number one daughter had a birthday, I typed The End to JADED! um, THE HARD STUFF went back for a THIRD printing!!!! and well, I received some very reassuring news from my agent that I’ve been kind of on pins and needles about. I started REDEMPTION last night. I love this story. My agent loves the concept, my GF’s love it, hubby is on board, and well, I just can’t wait to see it in print.

Something else wonderful happened this week.

I hit my writing stride.

You know when you’re working out? You begin your stretches then get on the treadmill, and start walking? Or running. Then somewhere during the process, your hips loosen, your stride gets stronger, your breathing regulates and your power picks up? And you feel like you can run for miles? That is where I am. I feel strong, capable and ready to go for as long as this body and brain can go.

For the very first time since I began this journey as a writer, I finally feel like I have what it takes to endure, and I want to endure. Half way through JADED I felt something happen with my writing. With the characters. With the story. It all just clicked. Then I took Margie Lawson’s workshop, and everything from that point in time just magically fell into place. It was always there, but somehow I wasn’t getting it. I get it now. All of these things along with a few personal epiphanies have opened the door to the sunlight.

I’ve written a lot of books. But it took JADED for it all to click. I guess I’m a late bloomer, but better to bloom late than not at all.

16 comments to “Busy week”

That’s awesome, Karin! I might have to order her lecture packet on that workshop. How was it?

I’ve kinda fallen off my writing stride. I was on a roll last fall, and all of a sudden, I don’t know what happened. I wonder if I don’t particularly want to write what I’m writing. It’s getting scary. I’m still pushing the words out, which is fine, but … I haven’t had a long flow day in a long time. I miss it!

Karin, congrats on the ‘hitting your stride’. I took your advice on my villain and today really felt her pain of why she has to be bad. Thanks. For the first time since everything happened I put pen to paper and wrote up a storm today. Don’t want to jinx it and call it a stride yet, but here’s hoping.

I really need to find my stride or I’ll never sleep again. This has been the craziest way to write a book. I write in the middle of the night. I write at 4:00AM. I write after I’ve had acupuncture in my car or in her waiting room. I write in my car after driving somewhere and I’ve gotten a great idea. I don’t want to write while driving. Pretty dangerous. LOL!

I’m glad you found your stride, though. I guess I’ll be a late bloomer, too.

I’ve had a good writing week also. Completed thirty pages of revisions on a completed ms. And just in general had a good week. I’m still trying to find my writing stride, but I think I’m close. Writing this particular WIP, I feel really comfortable, no struggling with the story or characters, everything has fallen into place. And Margie’s workshop really helped get me on that center…I need to send her a thank you note for it all. It didn’t change my writing, but just made me see it differently….Like a light came on.

Karin, great news, great week! I love that you’re hitting your stride. Sometimes, when I look back, I know I can do better. Working a full-time job years ago, carpooling two daughter, I wrote more than some days now. I had a good week last week, and I feel a little bit of that sun again too. LOL. It’s all about going for it. And I plan on it!

Writing isn’t for the faint of heart, is it? This is a hard and at sometimes very harsh business. I’ve been doing it a long time, toiling away here in the “ready room” for at least a decade. I’ve asked myself, ‘Hey, isn’t there something else I could do without all this rejection?”

Answer: yeah. But . . .

The hardest decision is the one to move past rejection. Make it work in positive ways in our writing. Take the rejection as a path of redirection and a revision as a true “re-Vision”.

I know rejection doesn’t end with that first contract. I know the grit becomes more chalky and the race gets longer. We each have to find our own way to persevere. Never stop learning. Always strive to push ourselves to the next level, to reach that sweet-spot, the stride you spoke of.

Where am I on my personal writing graph? Hmm. To me, each book is like starting all over again. Some novels have been easier than others, but I usually go through a period of self-doubt (where the crap-o-metic hits the top and rings the bell), and I wonder if I can pull it off.

However, with my new thriller, I haven’t had that anxiety. Not yet, anyway. The dreaded first draft is almost done. I just finished the dramatic climax. I thought I would never get to that point, but I finally made it and it felt damn good. Of course, I still have the resolution to write, but the climax was what was giving me fits. My characters just wouldn’t cooperate. The month I had to take off from writing because of a pinched nerve in my neck turned out to be a month well spent (plotting anew in my head). It gave me time to re-evaluate the ending, turning it into something compelling, not just workable. So I guess I could say I hit my stride in these past too weeks. Now I get to do what I love to do best, rewrite.

Hey, Carol! I’m so happy you’re writing! I can’t wait to read it.
Cheers about not having the doubt demon chew you up this time.
I’m looking forward to rewriting JADED. In fact the anticipation is infringing on my creative process for my current wip. I feel like my head is going to explode with ideas.

Yes, the first draft is painful. One of my favorite author quotes is by Dean Koontz: “Writing a novel is like making love, but it’s also like having a tooth pulled. Pleasure and pain. Sometimes it’s like making love while having a tooth pulled.” 🙂